Today is Draft Amnesty Day (December 16-18)

[Lizka]

TL;DR: Today^[1] is an official “Draft Amnesty Day” on the Forum. People are encouraged to share unfinished posts, unpolished writing, butterfly ideas, thoughts they’re not sure they endorse, etc.

This post explains how to:

• Participate ⬇️

• Explore what people have written ⬇️

• Hide these posts so that you don’t need to see them ⬇️

Participate!

If you have a draft lying around that you’ve never gotten around to polishing or checking, you are invited to post it today. (Here’s why I think that’s valuable.)

To make it clear that it’s a “Draft Amnesty Day” post, do the following:

1. Tag it with the Draft Amnesty Day tag

2. Copy-paste the following table into the post, and modify it as you’d like:

This is a Draft Amnesty Day draft. That means it’s not polished, it’s probably not up to my standards, the ideas are not thought out, and I haven’t checked everything. I was explicitly encouraged to post something unfinished!

Commenting and feedback guidelines: I’m going with the default — please be nice. But constructive feedback is appreciated; please let me know what you think is wrong. Feedback on the structure of the argument is also appreciated.

You can also elaborate more on what types of feedback would be most useful, the context for the original draft, and the like.

Explore what people have written

Here’s a list of posts that have been published with this tag^[2]. Explore them! If you like one of them, tell the author! You can also give constructive feedback, which could be enormously useful to the poster, but please be generous, respect the norms, and see if the author has asked for certain types of feedback specifically.

How to hide these posts entirely

You can hide Draft Amnesty Day posts entirely by using a tag filter. Go to the Frontpage of the Forum, then hover over the “Draft Amnesty Day” tag (find it to the right of the “Frtonpage Posts” header), and click on “Hidden.” Posts with this tag will stop showing up for you.

1. ^

   Depending on your timezone, you might see this early! In that case, tomorrow is a Draft Amnesty Day.

2. ^

   If it’s early, there might not be content there, yet.

[Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸]

1. I love this idea! (Will aim to publish a few things over the next few days!)

2. Lizka, I really appreciate the aesthetics you’ve brought to your initiatives and forum posts.

[Lizka]

Thank you! ❤️ (Looking forward to reading what you share!)

[Yonatan Cale]

My experience participating [content warning: negative emotions] :

I posted 2 things (Cause Suggestion: Econ Literacy, Job Post Template), feeling somewhat disappointed/​regretful that I did, I think those are both good ideas for posts (am I just flattering myself?) but they are hardly getting upvoted, and they are getting hidden from the front page now (a few hours after posting).

I might delete the posts at some point, and re-post them when I have the full version ready, since I do think these are ideas worth communicating.

[Lizka]

Thank you! I appreciate the feedback — it’s hard to pass along criticism. I’m sorry you were disappointed.

And thanks a bunch for sharing the posts! I especially appreciated the job template; I think many orgs have vague job descriptions that might cause them to lose out on applicants.

I’d weakly encourage you to leave the posts as they are, and just post an updated version later with a note on the top.

[Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸]

an updated version later with a note on the top.

Do you mean create a new post or update the old one? ( I can see arguments for both)

[Nathan Young]

I like this idea.

I think there could be a notion also be a “public draft” mode, where posts are accessible, but don’t get put on the frontpage until they are properly “published”. I would publish a lot more drafts if this were the case.

This would require:

• I “public draft” banner

• Public drafts are like published posts but they don’t go on the front page

[Vaidehi Agarwalla 🔸]

quick reflections on draft amnesty day

• i wish i’d known about it sooner, but had missed the notification. ideas

  • When you sub to forum newsletter, include a “be notified by email on upcoming forum activities /​ events” or append them to the forum newsletter.

  • Have a little banner on top of the forum with upcoming events that is non obtrusive and dismissable that this event is coming up (as someone who goes on the forum ~ daily, i definitely would have noticed that, but the post annoucement got hidden, forum is a newsfeed etc.

• i wish the window had been longer—a number of people posted a day late. I’d suggest e.g. Wed- Sun for next time. Why?

  • people don’t just publish the draft without looking over it at all (at least i didn’t)

  • however, they are posting it just with less edits than before. (sometimes my posts are like half-written, such that they wouldn’t make sense to post without at least reviewing it a little, or i want to make sure i still

  • Given the high standards on the forum, i wouldn’t be surprised if that was a common way for people to treat draft amnesty day

• I posted 2 posts i knew weren’t amazing, and probably wouldn’t be very popular, and it wasn’t the most positive experience maybe (like Yonaton mentioned) but I’m glad I did it because I felt like I could move on from those posts and focus on my other writing that is more interesting /​ valuable. in particular, i published a survey that had been in draft for over a year.

• It gave me a boost of energy to work on posts, and I made progress on other posts that I haven’t yet posted but I think are much more valuable than the things i actually posted. (mostly just speeding it up, but i think in this partiuclar case it was p valuable because the posts are particularly relevant right now)

• I have a 1-2 posts I will probably still post under draft amnesty after the deadline, just because I want people to see it as a work in progress

  • I wonder if a slightly more permanent version of draft amnesty is really the move here to experiment?

  • Like your post could have a 🚧 emoji next to it to imply WIP or something. People would not expect these to be as great, maybe they’d go off the homepage quicker in general

  • And then maybe when you post the polished version you can link the posts together so there’s like an evolution of your thinking which could be helpful for final posts that become really popular then people can see that the person initially wrote something rougher and that was okay too.

[Victor Mukuni]

What are your thoughts on “taking pleasure from another’s or your opponent’s loss?”

The ethical implications of taking joy in another’s misfortune are complex, but can be broken down into two : the opponent’s right not to be delighted and the morality of taking pleasure in another’s suffering. On the one hand, the opponent has the right to be dissatisfied, as it may be a painful defeat. A person however should not be expected to feel “glad” about a loss. On the other hand, it is not always improper to take pleasure in someone else’s misfortune. It may be viewed as one taking pleasure in the misery of another which can be viewed as a highly negative trait. This is not necessary a malevolent act, and if the pleasure is taken in the proper way, it can have a beneficial influence on the recipient’s mood. For instance, taking enjoyment in another person’s failure to achieve a goal might drive a person to work harder and pursue their own achievement.

[Victor Mukuni]

This is a #Draft Amnesty Day draft. That means it’s not polished, it’s probably not up to my standards, the ideas are not thought out, and I haven’t checked everything. I was explicitly encouraged to post something unfinished!

Uncertainty surrounds the future of effective altruism and animal welfare in Kenya.There are a large number of supporters and opponents of the movement. As the movement expands, it has meet both obstacles and possibilities. On the one hand, effective altruism has the ability to bring about good changes for animals, such as improved living conditions, nutrition, and protection against exploitation. On the other side, it could be utilized to advance the economic goals of people with economic power, such as the meat business, who may seek to exploit animals for their own financial gain. To have a lasting impact on animal welfare, the effective altruism movement must be able to offset the influence of individuals with economic power. This will necessitate increased public support for the cause as well as increased funding for animal welfare organizations. In order to ensure that the rights and interests of animals are respected and protected, it is equally essential that the movement engage in meaningful discourse with individuals who disagree with its goals. In addition, we need to concentrate on developing long-term strategies to promote animal welfare. This includes establishing ethical and compassionate farming practices and putting an end to the abuse of animals for entertainment and sport. The importance of animal welfare in effective altruism in Kenya is a crucial consideration. With both human and animal populations increasing, it is essential to safeguard the welfare of animals and protect them from exploitation and abuse. This can be accomplished by implementing animal welfare initiatives and conducting awareness campaigns. Additionally, effective altruism should be utilized to encourage animal-beneficial behavior. This can be accomplished through animal welfare-focused education and awareness initiatives and the establishment of animal protection laws. Animal welfare efforts in Kenya haven’t been really concerned in protecting animals from abuse and exploitation. Initiatives need to be supported through advocacy to encourage individuals to become more conscious of animal welfare and to take action to promote animal welfare. There’s a major role of leadership and governance in implementation of policies that are will help us advocate for the animal welfare agenda.